Henry Seekamp

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Walter E. Pidgeon, Illustration from The Eureka Stockade by Raffaello Carboni, Sunnybrook Press, 1942, offset print.
Art Gallery of Ballarat, Art Gallery of Ballarat, purchased 1994.

Background

The Ballarat Times and the Southern Cross was launched on the 4th March 1854 in Mair Street. By December 1854 it had moved to the north-east corner of Victoria and Humffray Streets. The paper was closed down by the government in the aftermath of the Eureka Rebellion after its editor Henry Seekamp was arrested on the 4th December 1854 and charged with sedition.[1] Ironically, Seekamp was the only person ever convicted of a crime as a result of the Eureka Rebellion. He was jailed for three months for sedition.[2]

Henry Erle Seekamp was born in 1829, England. He arrived in Ballarat in 1853 to dig for gold so that by 1854 he was able to try his luck as newspaper editor. He was able to import some basic printing equipment and bring it to Ballarat. Seekamp reportedly had an ‘Arts Bachelor’ degree from an unnamed university.[3]

In December 1853 he married Clara Maria Duvall.

Henry Seekamp died in 1864.[4]

Goldfields Involvement, 1854

Seekamp used his role as the editor of the Ballarat Times to voice the opinions of the miners. In an editorial in the Ballarat Times on 14 October 1854, the troopers of the Camp received a warning for the way in which they conducted themselves. He printed anti-government sentiments over the Scobie affair. On 18 November he printed can editorial on the development of the Ballarat Reform League. In the weeks leading up to Eureka, Henry contunued to print editorials which supported the diggers' cause. On the day of the rebellino Henry Seekamp was arrested and charged with sedition. The trial took place on 23 January 1855, when he received a six month sentence which was reduced to three months.[5]

Seekamp was a witness examined during the report of the Board appointed to enquire into circumstances connected with the riot at Ballarat, and the burning of James Bentley's Eureka Hotel. [6]

On 04 December 1854 Seekamp was arrested in his office while preparing a report of the Eureka Stockade battle. He was found guilty and imprisoned for seditious libel.[7] Charles Ferguson was the only American taken prisoner, and was chained to Henry Seekamp at gaol.[8]

Of the Ballarat Reform League Henry Seekamp wrote in 1854:

The die is cast and fate has stamped upon the movement its indelible signature. No power on earth can now restrain the united might and headlong stride for freedom of the people of this country and we are lost in amazement while contemplating the dazzling Panorama of the Australian future. We salute the league and tender our hopes and prayers for its prosperity. The league has undertaken a mighty task fit only for a great people – that of changing the dynasty of the Country. The League does not exactly propose nor adopt such a scheme but we know what it means the principles it would inculcate and that eventually it will resolve itself into an Australian Congress. It is not for us to say how much we have been instrumental in rousing up the people to a sense of their own wrongs. We leave that to the public and the world.

Post 1854 Experiences

Mr. Seekamp, proprietor of the Ballarat Times, and Mr. John Manning, the reporter, are both committed for trial, on a charge of printing and publishing seditious libels.[9]

The last recorded activity of Henry Seekamp in Ballarat was at the procession to the Eureka Stockade site to mark the second anniversary of the event. His movements from 1856 until his death in 1864 are uncertain, however, he is believed to have spent some time in Sydney and Queenland.[10]

Newsworthy

QUEEN V. SEEKAMP.
Mr Dunne, on behalf of Mr. Seekamp, stated that two important witnesses in the above trial, namely, George Dunmore Lang and John Manning, were undergoing imprisonment in her Majesty's gaol; and applied for a writ of habeas corpus ad testificandum for their appearance at the trial.
The application was granted.
The court then adjourned until ten o'clock this day.[11]


See also

Ballarat Reform League

Ballarat Times

John Manning

Clara Seekamp

United States Hotel

Further Reading

Corfield, J., Wickham, D., & Gervasoni, C. The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004.

References

  1. The Eureka Trails publicity brochure, undated.
  2. http://www.peacebus.com/Eureka/111128ToscanoMedia.html
  3. Rod Kirkpatrick, Eureka and the editor: A reappraisal 150 years on, https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:9519/Eureka.pdf
  4. Gervasoni, Clare and Ford, Tina, Eureka Stockade centre Hall of Debate Kit, 1998.
  5. Gervasoni, Clare and Ford, Tina, Eureka Stockade centre Hall of Debate Kit, 1998.
  6. Report of the Board appointed to Enquire into Circumstances Connected with the Late Disturbance at Ballarat, John Ferres, Government Printer, Melbourne, 21 November 1854.
  7. The Eureka Trails publicity brochure, undated.
  8. Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
  9. Hobart Colonial Times, 19 December 1954.
  10. Gervasoni, Clare and Ford, Tina, Eureka Stockade centre Hall of Debate Kit, 1998.
  11. The Argus, 20 January 1855.

External links

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/seekamp-henry-13188/text23875